MISUSE: State agency is reclaiming honorary shields. The issue has also hit the South Bay.

By Steve Geissinger

SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS

SACRAMENTO – The state Attorney General’s Office is reclaiming honorary police-type badges it distributed to its 1,200 staff attorneys because the agency has declared the practice illegal.

In turn, local enforcement agencies have been advised to review their honorary-badge policies following a formal opinion by the Attorney General’s Office declaring that the badges, which resemble those carried by police, can be misused by people who are not sworn law enforcement officers.

Around the state, honorary badges have been handed out to an untold number of city council members, county supervisors, animal-control officers, prosecutors, public defenders, law enforcement auxiliary groups, ceremonial mounted posses, courtroom clerks, emergency dispatchers and others.

Cases have come to light over the years involving people attempting to avoid traffic citations or to gain entry to restricted events by flashing the honorary badges.

Such badges have been an issue in a handful of South Bay cities. Gardena City Councilman Steve Bradford allegedly flashed his badge in a reported confrontation with Hawthorne police in 2002. No charges were ever filed in that incident.

A 2003 incident in which Redondo Beach City Councilman Don Szerlip flashed his badge during a profanity-laced confrontation with a motorist led to a debate and vote on the issue by the council, which decided to keep its badges.

And this week, a 28-year-old man who flashed a state Assembly badge traced to the office of Assemblyman Mervyn Dymally – who denied in court that he was involved in distributing the badges – got jail time after he was convicted of impersonating a government official, exhibiting a fake badge to deceive, and misusing the seal of the state Assembly.

In separate incidents, Pirikana Johnson displayed his badge to an officer twice during late-night encounters on the Redondo Beach pier. Johnson, who was on federal probation at the time, was also found guilty of driving without a license and driving with a blood-alcohol content over the state’s legal limit.

Johnson’s badge was one of several such badges purchased by Dymally’s office and handed out to family, donors and others.

The agencies that issue the badges – and by extension, taxpayers – could be subject to civil liability for any injury resulting from misuse of the badge, the opinion states.

After the controversy from Johnson’s misuse of a badge from Dymally’s office, Assembly Speaker Fabian Nu ez, D-Los Angeles, promptly banned legislators from giving badges to the general public.

At the same time it issued the opinion, the Attorney General’s Office ordered a recall of the badges it had issued to staff members over the years.

“The attorney general’s deputies are in the process of turning the badges in throughout the state,” said Gareth Lacy, a spokesman for Attorney General Jerry Brown.

Lacy said the badges were issued long before Brown took office in January.

New badges are being prepared that clearly say “Not a peace officer” on their face.

“It’s up to the individual attorneys whether they want a new one, whether they want (another) credential, or nothing,” Lacy said.